Learnt something new in the potting shed at Audley End.

Speaking for all of us.

Bob@choochoo-bob.bsky.social · 2d ago

Bought this book on the Friday Street car boot sale for Tom Eliot's exquisite understanding of literature but found this inscription by Roderick R Taylor. "Who he?" I wondered. It turns out this book had just been waiting for me to find it. www.passport-collector.com/roderick-tay...

Rug of the Day (Seen at Friday Street, Suffolk) Large Readicut home-knotted eccentricity in (one can only surmise) imitation of a Portuguese needlepoint original.

Today's Car Boot Sale Treasures (Friday Street, Suffolk) A finely engineered Welsh pirn and Vincent Cronin's 1950s portrait of the Qashqai nomads of Fars.

There should be a phrase for that feeling you get when you return to your disembowelled home to find a new alien artefact in your airing cupboard. #NewHeatingSystem

How your email finds me

Loampit Hill, Lewisham I've stumbled upon the local Reform Party HQ.

Loampit Vale, Lewisham. I like a borough that takes carpets seriously.

On holiday in exotic Lewisham. Just visited a temple packed with Hindu deities by the sacred River Quaggy. www.londonsivankovil.org.uk

Rug of the Day Circular art deco carpet by Marion Dorn for the party ankmal Coutaulds at Eltham Palace with weave structure kindly exposed for me by the custodians.

Useful Work

Olga Pecorelle@olgapecorelle.bsky.social · last wk.

It was a wonderful weekend! I went to Liguria to spin wool and see the sea. It was a sort of last minute decision, I wasn't sure I'd go so I didn't write anything about it. But I went and it was so good. I spun in the evening and went sightseeing in the daytime.

Useful work

Joumana Medlej@majnouna.com · last wk.

Dug up these photos: roasting yellow ochre to redden it, before and after. A geological process that can be recreated in a pan. (Red ochre is essentially dehydrated yellow ochre.)

The Peripheral looks like it's getting its second part after all. Different stable, different novel, same imaginative universe.

William Gibson@greatdismal.bsky.social · 2w ago

www.youtube.com/watch?v=g79G...

How to watch the eclipse of 17th April 1912 if you weren't in Paris at the time

Whenever I feel that chatting to AI is modestly interesting, quite helpful and st least entertaining, I just have to read Cory to remind myself that the freebie golden age will (shortly) be over and I'll miss its innocent enthusiasm :-)

By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C)@doctorow.pluralistic.net · 2w ago

As *tech*, AI isn't exceptional. It's not exceptionally wicked. It's not exceptionally good. Take away the accompanying, galactic-scale stock-swindle, and we'd call AI's apps "plug-ins" and we'd use them and abuse them in the same way that we've used every other technology: www.normaltech.ai 1/

This Week's Car Boot Sale Treasure Gentleman's Haora shawl of the Tangkhul Naga people living in Manipur State, India on the border with Myanmar. I often wonder how these things end up in Cambridge

Look who's moved into my weaving shed extension. Must have come from. Duxford :-)

A Loom With A View

If you're not following @bruces.bsky.social, you are not yet sufficiently apocalyptic. Go on, he has the most fun takes on how we're most likely to die.

"Rug" of the Day Painted sackcloth screen, seen in the St Barnabus Press art studios on the Clifton Road industrial estate. (Open Studios)

In Cambridge property development news this week, I am completing my weaving shed extension using only materials purchased on the Trumpington Car Boot Sale.

I feel seen. From this week's Private Eye.

Rug of the Day Old Antalian felt blanket, bought from an old Anatolian at the car boot sale. Would suit benighted shepherd or refugee family.

Good (upside down non-thread) from Bruce today.

#BruceSterling@bruces.bsky.social · last mo.

`*So, was the Trumpistan national parade cancelled because they ran out of gasoline, or was that just Putinstan #ethnonationals #twentytwenties #sowwind #reapwhirlwind

Rug of the Day Section of a Qashqai moj/jajim, sold as a blanket in Reeds of Saffron Walden. Lovely, weighty twill fabric, woven in narrow strips sewn together.

Rug of the Day Substantial Turkmen chuval (bag-face). Would suit XL camel or small truck. Slightly the worse for wear.

Today's woad trivia: I can recommend the work of Dr J B Hurry of Reading, kindly and carefully preserved for us by the Internet Archive. archive.org/details/woad...

Comprehensive review of Cambridge South Station from a well-informed guy. Worth a read.

Graham James@grahamjames.bsky.social · last mo.

New blogpost, celebrating some good news: Cambridge South station is open! My post covers why it's needed, why it was such a big project, and some first impressions of the station. Bonus video for anyone with an interest in railway signalling. grahamjames.co.uk/connect-and-...

Since Mr Burnham is is the news today, I'll just re-up this thread for dyeing enthusiasts.

Paul McGhee@pmcghee.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Just acquired this delightful volume, featuring Mr Burnham of Parson's Drove woad mill and companion. "Whoi, that be me and my 'oss, Tom. The finest 'oss that ever I druv." I shall henceforth be posting tips on woad cultivation on a regular basis.